Friday, 29 August 2014

The Microsoft in Education Global Forum taking place in Redmond, Washington in March 2015. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be recognised as a Microsoft Innovative Educator, join the Microsoft Educator Network and upload a learning activity that demonstrates how you are using 21st century teaching practices in your classroom by 15 October 2014Microsoft believes that technology alone cannot build 21st century skills for students. Technology is an accelerator, but alone it does not enable change. Microsoft believes in the power of the educator, and the impact educators can have when they are brought together and recognized for their achievements. Microsoft offers engagement opportunities aimed at empowering educators like you effectively use technology to develop your students’ 21stcentury skills. Join over a million educators, helping over 190 million students in over 200 countries who are shaping the future of education by becoming a Microsoft Innovative Educator – Expert (MiE – Expert).

As some of the world’s most innovative educators, MIE Experts advance the conversation about improving student outcomes through innovative uses of technology in teaching and learning. Participants of the program can expect:

Free Microsoft tools and technology

Exclusive professional development opportunities

To develop your personal “brand” and career as a thought leader by participating in case studies, speaking engagements and content development

Eligibility to earn an all-expense paid trip to the Microsoft in Education Global Forum in Redmond, Washington in March 2015.

As an MiE – Expert your role in the Community will be to:

Build educator capacity for using technology in teaching and learning to improve student learning

Advise Microsoft and education institutions on how to integrate technology in pedagogically sound ways

Be an advocate at conferences, events and trainings for how Microsoft technology can improve learning

Get started with four easy steps

Step One: Review program commitment

Your commitment as a MIE Expert is to be an advocate for using Microsoft technology to improve student learning. In a year, MIE Experts typically:

Attend 8-10 webinars to learn about and give feedback on new technologies and education concepts

Build educator capacity in your community (school, district or at training events) by training or coaching educators and inviting them to join the Microsoft Educator Network (educators at your school and/or 200 others)

Develop your own capacity as a thought leader:

Speak at 2 or more conferences

Regularly contribute to social media such as Facebook and Twitter referencing #MSFTEDU

Step Two: Join the Microsoft Educator Network (MSEN)Join the Microsoft Educator Network and fully complete your profileStep Three: Submit a learning activitySubmit a learning activity. Learning activities are typically a project-based or inquiry-based activities that exemplify the use of 21st century teaching practices. The best past learning activities have included references to the 21st Century Learning Design rubrics, included examples of students’ work, and a video explaining the learning activity. All learning activities should be submitted in English to apply to become a MIE Expert. See learning activities from MIE Experts.

Step Four: Send an email to meaexp@microsoft.com with a link to your profile on the Microsoft Educator Network and a link to your Learning Activity, and complete the online form found at http://1drv.ms/1qvP8scbefore 24 October, 2014.

Thursday, 28 August 2014

These are free Web2.0 applications for uploading a presentation to the web so that it can be viewed online.A. SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net/)SlideShare is the world’s largest and leading online community for hosting, discovering and sharing presentations. It is safe to say that SlideShare has become a must-have tool in every presenter’s toolbox today. Business professionals, teachers, public speakers and students alike often use it to find inspiration and ideas, learn or present their own work here.

Although SlideShare is a great way to place a presentation online it cannot include audio unfortunately. That feature was discontinued in April this year. If you have an iPad you’ll probably need to upload to the web browser version of SlideShare. If you have Android you’ll need to download the SlideShare Presentation App

B. AuthorStream (http://www.authorstream.com/)
AuthorStream is a similar application to SlideShare but it does allow the use of sound as well. It is a free platform for uploading, hosting and sharing PowerPoint and other type of presentations online. It has a pretty large user base and helps you discover great presentations in various categories: business and finance, education, product manuals, science, technology, and many others.
Here are some of the instructions:
a) Add a PowerPoint to Authorstream - How to add audio in your presentation: https://www.facebook.com/authorstream/posts/10152347199289250?stream_ref=10
b) Upload and share Keynote presentations to Authorstream
c) It doesn’t seem that Google presentations can be uploaded to Authrorstream – they would have to be downloaded as PowerPoints first.

C. Other examples
However, SlideShare and AuthorStream are not the only websites that specializes in hosting and sharing presentations. There are other great, high-quality sites that let you upload, host and create or discover great presentations and slideshows shared by other presenters. The following section comes from a blogpost found at http://www.pdfconverter.com/resources/blog/14-alternatives-to-slideshare-for-top-notch-presenters1.Empressr – a free online tool for creating rich media presentations without having to be a technology expert. Add images, video, audio and music to your Empressr presentations to create visual stories and share them privately or publicly in an instant.2.MyPlick is a free service for sharing, embedding and discovering slide shows and presentations on the web. They support Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF and OpenOffice documents for slides, and various audio formats if you want to add narration to your presentations.3.PowerShow - yet another community for hosting, sharing and viewing PowerPoint presentations online. It converts uploaded PowerPoint slides to multimedia Flash slideshows while preserving all types of embedded effects, photos and live links to YouTube videos. Everyone can publicly share and view personal and educational presentations for free. PowerShow additionally allows its users to earn money with their presentations by marking them as “pay to view” and setting a price for viewing them.4.Prezi - a virtual whiteboard for transforming presentations into compelling stories and visually flowing lessons. Prezi is perfect for creating impressive resumes (calledPresumes) and portfolios that will undoubtedly help opportunity and job seekers to stand out from the crowd.5.Projeqt - create and share dynamic presentations from scratch or by converting old static slides. Simply upload PowerPoint, PDF or multiple image files at once and create a dynamic and portable online Projeqt with no coding required. Created Projeqts can be embedded and shared anywhere.6.Reel - present your ideas online and get feedback. The app allows you to upload your slides asdocuments in the PDF, PPT or DOC file formats or as images (JPG, PNG, GIF), describe them, and share.7.SlideBoom - an easy to use online slide hosting service. This service allows you to upload, convert PowerPoint presentations and slideshows to Flash and share them online. You can also search for presentations in more than 30 categories and 100 different languages.8.SlideRocket - an online tool for creating, sharing and managing presentations. It allows you to import your existing PowerPoint presentations or create SlideRockets from scratch.9.SlideServe - one more way to take your PowerPoint presentations online and share them privately or publicly with others. You can email presentations hosted on SlideServe or embed them to blogs and social networking sites.10.SlideWorld – a medical PPT search engine geared toward health professionals and students worldwide. Users can upload and share their presentations as well as browse over 700,000 educational medical presentations.11.SpeakerDeck - upload your PDF slides and turn them into online presentations. Once uploaded to the site, presentations can be described, added to an appropriate category, and shared with the rest of the world. You can share a link to your presentation, embed it on a website or blog, or simply share with Facebook friends and Twitter followers.12.VCASMO - a multimedia presentation solution for business presentations, academic teaching, seminars and training, photo-video slideshows and more.13.Zentation - create online presentations by combining video and slides. It is a handy solution for creating webcasts, webinars, training, e-learning and other virtual events. You can publicly share Zentations that you create and browse other shared presentations.

Microsoft in Education in South Africa has created a fantastic and comprehensive collection of resources that can help anyone understand and explore the possibilities that Office 365 offers.
This post was first posted on:

An inspirational idea for transactional writing
Transactional writing (particularly informal letters) can often be perceived as somewhat tedious things within many classrooms. It requires only the one language medium (written), as well as a small handful of structural and functional understanding. Understandably, this can be as tiresome as treading water, as boring as painting an already white wall white again, or indeed as painful as waking up in the morning and arriving at school, only to discover that it is a Sunday!

Therefore, the awesome English Department at Parklands College came up with a simple yet inspiring initiative for Grade 8s in order to revamp the ‘revampable!’ Instead of creating a series of letters as an individual assessment, I combined the ‘prepared oral’ and a wonderfully versatile free app called Tellagami in order to maneuver the monotony, refrain from restriction and engage the learners with some living letters!

Writing the first draft
After presenting and eliciting the standard parameters for informal letter writing, the learners were encouraged to produce their first and final drafts of their own letters over a few lessons.

Topics
The topics given were based on social examples including writing to a friend overseas, our yearly inter-school sports day called, Derby Day, as well as one involving the Grade 8 movie, War Horse. As far as the learners were concerned, that was the end of the assessment but far more was to be done!

The task
The learners were asked to list the differences (inclusive of advantages and disadvantages) between the written and spoken forms of communication, and thus initiated closer examination of the intricate complexities of human communication. Higher order thinking was encouraged here as the learners reflected on aspects ranging from intonation, structure, register, and spelling, to various diacritics like accents. After much discussion and deliberation, the majority of learners decided that the spoken form of language was by far superior due to the social cues one receives from fellow speakers (e.g. facial expressions, tone of voice, volume, pauses) which help reduce ambiguity. For example, depending on the writer, forms like ‘LOL’ can mean either ‘Lots Of Love’ or ‘Laugh Out Loud’ and if one is not careful, uncomfortable and embarrassing situations may result if the wrong one is used in the wrong social situation. One can imagine the unwelcome result of receiving ‘LOL’ via text message in response to a family bereavement! However, when speaking in the company of others, such ambiguity is unlikely to occur as often. The learners also noted that errors of spelling and graphology are rendered obsolete when one speaks, so that was one less thing for them to worry about!

Therefore, the learners were required to combine the spoken with the written all within Tellagami in order to demonstrate the importance of both communicative mediums.

The processFirstly, learners had to download the app to their cellphones or tablets and then design their own avatar via the options available. Another fantastic feature of Tellagami, is that it is available on both Android and Apple digital devices.

Tellagami is available as an IOS and an Android app

Secondly, having discussed the importance of ‘context’ within all realms of communication, the Grade 8s were told to adapt the emotion and backdrop of their avatars in order for them to accurately reflect the context of their written letters.

And lastly, the learners had to record their voices reading out their letters onto their avatars and exporting them as short movie clips. As with the emotion and backdrop functions, they had to pay careful attention to their tone of voice, intonation and delivery in order to create an authentic context based on the content of their letters (e.g. if writing to a sibling about Derby Day their voices should seem excitable and enthusiastic). The examples that the learners created were truly phenomenal!

Benefits of using Tellagami for transactional writing
This simple task went further than the typical informal writing task and exposed the Grade 8s to the tiny but extremely important components of written and spoken English, as well as enforcing their understanding of what constitutes effective communication. The benefits to this task did not end there! Subconsciously, the learners made use of effective use of punctuation, and parts of speech in order to elicit the correct register. Therefore, this served as a form of enrichment and affirmation of holistic language skills.

With the help of Tellagami, the informal letters and the all-inspiring constructivist approach, some terrific material was created!

SchoolNet says: What a great way to make informal letter writing come to life. I am sure the learners in this class LOVED the inspirational and exciting approach outlined in this lesson, using Tellagami. Thank you again to Anthony Peters and the creative English Department at Parklands College in Cape Town for sharing this great post with us.

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Submitted by Fiona BealAt the Google in Education Summit held at Dainfern College in Johannesburg in July an exciting new venture was launched by Google in South Africa – Google Education Groups. You can find out more about Google Educator Groups (GEGs) in general at this URL: http://www.google.com/landing/geg/ This is a world-wide launch with each country having its own GEGs We invite you to join GEG South Africa. This announcement was received with great excitement at the Summit.

What are Google Educator Groups (GEGs)?Google believes that the best inspiration to educators are other educators. It is for this reason that Google helped start a community of passionate educators, who bring the benefits of technology to schools, classrooms, and communities across the world. Google Educator Groups (GEGs) are communities of educators who learn, share, and inspire each other to meet the needs of their students through technology solutions, both in the classroom and beyond.Why should I join?Google 'Learn. Inspire.Share. Empowe.'These four words represent the essence of GEGs. Educators will buil;d relationships with other educators and gain the necessary skills to open technology to deliver the best possible education to their students.

How do I start?

1. Read about the free, global GEG program at g.co/geg and see if this is something that interests you. 2. Then get a Google account if you don't already have one. This entitles you to many benefits such as a Gmail address and a Google+ profile. This is important because the Google Educator Groups community for South Africa is a Google+ community and you need to have a Google account to join. (Go to Create your Google Account if you don't already have a Google account). If you would like to know more about getting started with your Google+ profile which comes with the account please read this blogpost on the SchoolNet blog', Why you should you start using Google+.... '

3. After joining Google+ join our GEG South Africa Google+ community at GEG South Africa Google+ Community. When you get there you'll notice that it is set up in provinces - Gauteng, North West, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo and Mpumulanga. Click on the one for your region and introduce yourself . This is a place to share ideas.

This is such an exciting venture, and we encourage you to get involved and be part of the move to ‘Learn Share Inspire Empower’ and form GEGs with teachers around you. See you online in the GEG South Africa community!Looking forward to meeting you in the Google South Africa community!

Monday, 25 August 2014

Are you a teacher that likes to use the media with your 13-19 year old students? If so, please think about joining our upcoming Adobe Youth Voices programme with a group of students – even if you need to form an after school club in order to do this. The great thing about it is that you’ll learn to create media with the free products and free online training from Adobe headquarters that we supply. All teachers and learners who meet all expectations will go into a prize draw to win great prizes and a trip to the next IEARN International conference.

How to apply

SchoolNet is offering only twelve places to South African teacherrs on this free course starting in September. If you are interested then:
1. Download the Application form from this link:
2. Send Ms Omashani Naidoo (omashani@schoolnet.org.za) an email to express interest in participating in the upcoming Adobe Youth Voices project.
If you would like to join SchoolNet’s offer for this course please write immediately to What is this programme all about?
Adobe Youth Voices enables middle and high school age youth to use digital tools to “create with purpose” – to express their ideas about issues important to their lives and have their voices heard by a wide range of audiences. iEARN was one of the founding non-profit partners that helped to launch the Adobe Youth Voices program in 2006, and is currently administering AYV programs in 23 countries. Donation of Adobe Photoshop and Premier Elements to participants
Participating iEARN Adobe Youth Voices sites receive donations of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements software, and participating educators agree to the following: Commitment requirements for you to participate
1. Complete an 8-week online Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) core training course, during which you will:
• Get an overview of the philosophy of the AYV program and what’s expected of them, their sites and their youth as part of the program
• Gain an understanding of the value and methodologies of youth media making and the youth media tradition
• Explore various media forms and formats in which youth work can be created
• Learn about the steps and stages to facilitating effective youth media making practice
• Explore community connections and think about strategies for building and engaging audiences
• Discover models of instructional practice as it relates to working with media and youth

2. Develop a work plan and timeline by the conclusion of the core training for integrating AYV into your instruction over the coming year.

4. Support youth to use donated Adobe Photoshop and/or Premiere Elements software to produce original works

5. Collect necessary paperwork and signatures to allow Adobe Foundation to exhibit and celebrate the youth-produced work from your site:

Non-exclusive Licensing Agreement Form (NELA) - The non-exclusive licensing agreement (NELA) must be signed by all Adobe Youth Voices Awards participants & if they are under the age of 18 his/her parent/ guardian. This document states that the youth artist is the owner of his/her work but that they give the Adobe Foundation permission to distribute the work. Please click here to download the NELA Form.
Model Release Form - The Model Release Form permits the Adobe Foundation to use the artists’ image and should be signed by all youth (if under 18 their parents) that are participants in the AYV program. Please click here to download the Model Release Form.

6. Contribute youth media work to the iEARN AYV collection by June 5, 2015 to be exhibited locally, online, and globally

Adobe Youth Voices Online Educator Course Syllabus
The Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) online course is designed to introduce you to the Adobe Youth Voices program and to help you, as educators, more effectively support youth media making.
During the 8 weeks of the course, you will be building on your knowledge and skills to create media with young people. Example topics covered in this course include media forms and formats; process product and presentation; community collaboration and exhibition, and technical skills necessary to use Adobe media making software. Throughout the course, you will have two experienced facilitators to guide you along the way. It is expected that by the end of this course you will be able to guide young people to truly Create Media with Purpose.

Goals
By the end of this course you will understand:

The philosophy of the Adobe Youth Voices program and what is expected of you, your sites and the youth you are working with as part of the program.

Models of instructional practice as they relate to working with youth and media.

The value and methodologies of youth media making.

The various media formats in which youth work can be created.

Steps and strategies to facilitating effective youth media making.

Community connections and strategies for building and engaging audiences.

Prerequisites

Reliable access to a computer and Internet

Availability to commit at least four hours per week to course activities

Working knowledge of English (Course are available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian)

Feedback and Assessment
Course facilitators will review and assess your progress throughout the course. At the conclusion of each session, the facilitator will update the course Gradebook noting whether you met discussion board expectations and completed any required assignments. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion, which verifies completion of the course requirements.

Technical Requirements

Internet Access. You must have Internet access with an updated web browser, preferably FireFox.

Active Email Account. You must have an active email account that you check regularly. Course facilitators will communicate with you both through the course and through your email account.

Adobe Flash Player 9. You must have Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher installed on your computer. Adobe Flash Player is needed to view the youth media samples on the AYV site.

Adobe Reader. To read many of the files (PDF) you will need an updated version of Adobe Reader.

Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements. This software will be provided to you through your iEARN/Adobe Youth Voices Country Program Managers, and should be installed in advance of the course start date.

Program Materials and Guide

Once you have been given access to the course platform, you may want to download the Adobe Youth Voices Program Guide, a comprehensive youth media guide for educators that will be referenced and used throughout the course. This and other materials that you will use in the course are available via a link called “Program Materials & Guide” in the top orientation block of your Adobe Youth Voices Program Training course platform.

All sample youth-media shown in the course is available via online streaming as you move throughout the course, but if you have a slow Internet connection, you may also want to download the media ahead of time to have available when it is featured in the course. Course media can be downloaded via a link called “Downloadable Course Videos” in the top orientation block of your Adobe Youth Voices Program Training course platform.

Course OverviewWeek One: Orientation. During this orientation period you will get acquainted with our online learning environment, meet your peers and facilitators and become familiar with the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program goals and outcomes. Week Two: Youth Media Defined. In this session you will be introduced to the theory and value of youth media making, a practice that gives young people the opportunity to build meaningful skills and express their unique perspectives on the world around them. You will also begin exploring a selection of the Adobe software that you have received, Photoshop Elements, a powerful tool for editing and organizing images. Week Three: Youth Centered Instruction. In this session you will focus on how to use youth centered instructional strategies to create media for personal and social change. Regardless of the tools or media format used, youth media requires meaningful engagement and inquiry-based experiences - as an educator, you will ultimately be guiding youth through this process. You will also explore organizational and workflow aspects of Adobe media making software. Week Four: Process, Product, Presentation. In this session you will learn the different production stages in the media making process. Educators and young artists need to be aware of these stages from the onset so that everyone is involved in moving the process forward. A particular focus during this session will be on the Critique and Review stages. You will also explore strategies for integrating youth media into existing curriculum and programming.
Starting in this session, and working over the next four sessions, you will also begin a media making production cycle through an "Inside/Out" production scaffolding exercise. The Inside/Out activities will provide you with hands-on experience working on a photo project, expose you to Adobe software, and give you a chance to practice using media making equipment. This activity can be done using either Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Elements. Week Five: Media Forms and Formats. In this session you will learn about potential forms (e.g. audio, print, video) and formats (e.g. journalistic, poetic, self-portrait) to consider when engaging youth in media work. Examining the creative potential of the different forms and formats will help you determine the best fit, given your resources and the interests of your youth. Week Six: Youth Media Making Tools. In this session you will dig deeper into Adobe software tools. Computer-based media making tools have completely transformed the youth media field in the last ten years. Tools that used to be incredibly expensive and out of reach of most youth and educators are now widely available. Week Seven: Connecting With Your Audience. In this session you will learn about distribution options and planning to best showcase media created by the youth with whom you work. You will also examine issues related to ownership and copyright. From the very beginning, young media artists should identify the impact they wish to have on their audience and the best way to distribute their work to insure the desired impact. Ultimately, youth media is about bringing a youth perspective to a broader audience. Week Eight: Going Forward and Resources. In this session you will set your own professional development goals beyond this training, learn to connect with other sites and educators, and become familiar with additional valuable resources on youth media making.
More info about Adobe Youth Voices can be found at http://youthvoices.adobe.com/

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

If you are a Maths teacher for Grade 10-12 Maths, you probably know about Nokia’s free Momaths service for Grade 10 – 12 students that is available on a smartphone – a device which many students of that age have access to. Today I thought I would investigate whether this service also works on a PC. And it does! here were the steps I followed.1. Go to the Nokia Momaths websiteThe website URL is https://momaths.nokia.com. The Nokia application gives two options – one for South Africa and one for global. Click on the South Africa option.

2. Either register or loginIf you are logging in you choose your username and password. However if you are a new user you select ‘Sign up now’I was interested to read the box at the bottom of the page. It says, ‘Normal data rates apply. However some operators provide this service free-of-charge in South Africa for their customers’ and below that is the MTN logo! Awesome! Thank you MTN!

3. After signing up create a username and a passwordI hadn’t registered before so I chose the ‘Sign up now’ option.

4. Make your Grade selectionsNext you come to a neatly arranged menu showing that you can select a grade, and even join or create a group. There is also a place where you can check the points you gain as you practise. I selected Grade 10.

5. Choose your Maths topicThis opens on a page showing the various topic options. I chose ‘Numbers and Patterns’.

6. Start practising

7. Read and answerThere are three questions to answer and a good explanation of how to work out the answer. If it gets confusing there is a hint at the bottom of the page. I see there is also a place to ‘Read theory and examples’. I thought I would click on that.

8. Work through the theoryWell this looks most impressive. Plenty of theory to help one along and examples to work through.

Personally I am impressed that this service should be given to our Grade 10 – 12s for free. It is set out very neatly and logically and one can just work through it at home alone, or in an informal group with friends. If you are reading this please spread the word at your school. Every Grade 10 – 12 students should be advised that they can benefit from this CAPS-aligned service.

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